


Moments In Time

by Keenir



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, mention of characters from other series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-01-03 10:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little scenes from Rodney and Dusty's shared involvement. (and one that isn't and is)<br/>Prompt: "Laughter was never rationed." Rodney McKay/Dusty Mehra</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moments In Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gelbes_gilatier](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelbes_gilatier/gifts).



> This was written last December for a month-of-memes. Very fun.

Things change. That is the nature of a multiverse.

Suffice it to say that the Milky Way Galaxy (home of Earth), once more lost contact with the Pegasus Galaxy (home of Atlantis). Those who were rescuers and resuppliers, they now numbered alongside those who had already been separated from Earth...

******

Even Cadman and Lorne had left, and those had been the ones who stayed the longest, in part "to keep the two of you from each other's throat," Lorne had said.

Cadman had only remarked, "Oh then they'd definately need the room to themselves for that."

But now..."Okay then, if that's the way its going to be," Rodney said. "Biggest thing you've ever blown up."

"You'd win that - the solar system everyone talks about you destroying."

Rodney knows she said that with a straight face, but the way she said it, he would swear he heard Dusty sticking her tongue out at him. "You still have to say what yours was."

 _Jo Lupo swore sideways it was the remains of Warehouse 12, but can't say that._ "Didn't use explosives, but my sister exploded nicely when I objected during her wedding. _After_ the vows were exchanged in English and Quenya."

"You objected in a wedding?"

"I hear you didn't think highly of the man who wanted to marry _your_ sister," Dusty pointed out.

"True, true," Rodney granted her.

"Then on that we agree."

"Say it isn't so."

"No."

_Cadman would've stuck her tongue out at that - thank God she's not Cadman._

******

"You had it easy," Dusty said.

"Ex-cuse me?" Rodney asked her. "Just where do you think I've had anything easy?"

"Canada."

"Starting to think Americans are trained from birth to believe that," he muttered. "Look, before I was sent over to NATO, NORAD, and the SGC, I personally stopped a coordinated cyber-attack and invasion."

"Wow."

"I know."

"I had no idea reindeer were computer-literate."

******

"Most awkward moment?" Dusty repeated. "Not counting Ba'al hitting on me, it would have to be at my bat mitzvah, when a friend of mine promised to marry me ten years from them."

"How is that awkward?" Rodney asked.

"He became a merc." _Wonder what became of Eliot after I saw him last?_

"Ah."

"How 'bout you?"

"Definately when I learned I was allergic to all citruses, and not just lemons," Rodney said. "It was one of those times when the old 'it wasn't love, it was chemistry' was very true."

******

With each of them armed with a slice of Satedan pizza, Rodney and Dusty sat down in the lab. "Cadman's outdone herself," Rodney said. Her latest test of new explosives had cleaned and sterilized all the tables and chairs in the room.

"Yeahhhh, not sure it was an accident," Dusty said, trying not to think about the glowing shrapnel (from that explosion) lit up like wall sconces.

"I admit, Lorne's argument for us not eating with everyone else, did seem a little rehearsed. But I figured that was because he didn't want to lose an argument this time."

Dusty snorted. "The only person he loses an argument to, is Laura Cadman. And you are not her."

"Thank God."

"L'chaim, inshallah."

"Good luck, God willing?"

"And it speaks in tongues, my mother would be so proud."

"I do believe I hear sarcasm dripping off your tongue," Rodney said.

"It's saliva, and I'm hungry. So eat."

"I'm not stopping you."

"One thing drilled into me," Dusty said, "was to never be the first person at your table to eat."

"What, you think Ronon poisoned the pizza?"

"Ronon's recipe. You trust Teyla's cooking skills, when Kavanaugh helps her?"

"Good point," Rodney said, and watched Dusty.

She in turn watched him.

"This is rediculous," he said after a while. "On three, the both of us?"

"Same time?" Dusty asked.

Rodney nodded. "One...two..."

******

A recounting of Rodney's adventure during when he was stationed in Russia - a dramatic chase involving a woman with a very literary name - and Dusty's hellraising days back with Vanessa James and James' adopted sister, it had all led to a time of shared laughter, which both of them stopped, startled.

But the silence was even more awkward, and harder to get out of.

To recover, Dusty said, "Once, in Ramstein, our superiors had some of us working with our German cousins - spirit of international cooperation stuff," Dusty said. "I got partnered up with some cops... and a German Shephard, name of Rex."

"Huh. Nice dog?"

"Good at his job." _Like we are._

"Chasing cats?"

"Catching criminals."

******

"Where would you be if you weren't out here?" Rodney asked her.

"Probably take my brother's place underwater," Dusty said. "Marcus Chapman would be my CO."

"Only a probably?"

"Permaybehaps I'd be on the sub serving alongside my brother. You?"

Rodney shook his head. "I reallly would rather not be underwater."

"You sure that's not Atlantis-inflicted?" Dusty inquired.

"Atlantis-enhanced, but I had the issue before I got here."

Dusty considered a retort, but let it lie.

"And if I weren't in the SGC, then I'd probably either have some other covert posting somewhere, or I'd be a live-in babysitter helping raise my niece."

"No tenured professorship?"

"You're forgetting that most of my career has been classified," Rodney said.

******

"I have to tell Dr. Weir," Dusty said once day.

"Wh- Tell her what?" Rodney asked.

"About us."

"Are you nuts? Second thought, don't answer that."

"Homeworld Security and the USAF put her in charge of all personnel in this galaxy. Military and otherwise."

"And?"

"You're Canadian," Dusty said.

"Really, you noticed?"

"All service personnel involved with foreigners have to clear the relationship with their superiors."

"You haven't thus far."

Dusty shrugged. "Figured I'd kill you by now."

"Failure must really rankle, I imagine," Rodney said.

"Eh."

"Anyway, there's a perfectly good reason why you shouldn't report us."

"And what's that?" she asked. "Name five, and I won't speak to Dr. Weir."

Rodney named twenty. And what swelled her chest with something akin to pride, was that he didn't give the answer - excuse - she had feared he might say. _And he also didn't mention that the UCMJ don't apply because we're on our own in another galaxy,_ Dusty noted.

******

"Come on, what's really bugging you?"

John didn't rise to the bait of that deliberate pun. "It just makes no sense."

"Smart people being happy?" Teldy asked.

" _That_ makes sense - look at Miko and Radek, for example. And I can even understand what Cadman and Lorne see in each other -"

"And I'm sure they appreciate your approval," Teldy muttered.

"- but McKay and Mehra make no sense. Hell, half the time I run into them, they're giggling like schoolgirls."

"Not possible."

"Stack of Bibles, Teldy."

"McKay, sure, I believe you. But Mehra can't giggle to save her life."

"Always possible Rodney was doing enough for the two of them. But you see my point."

"I don't see a problem with outwardly-aggressive individuals finding peace and contentment - or at least a lifetime sparring partner - together," Teldy said. _Some people are good together, so long as you don't make them spell it out._

"Somebody's going to get hurt."

"Then don't get between them. Same princible you should be using with Ronon and punching bags."

******

"Strangest mission you've ever been on?" Dusty asked him one evening.

"Helping a fellow subject of Her Majesty solve a crime," Rodney said.

"How's that strange?"

"The only clue was a cormorant - you know, a snake-necked bird."

"Yeah, that's weird."

"You?" shifting slightly closer.

She physically replied the same way. "I was in Yemen with the Jameses, and we were..." her head and his starting to near one another.

Anything they might have been about to do, was interupted by a large plate of cookies materializing next to the two of them.

They both thought _I have no idea how she did this, but..._

"H.G.," Rodney muttered.

"Damnit, Parker," Dusty muttered.

And they looked at one another and smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, in a few of my fics (SGU & Leverage), Parker was raised - at least for a while - with the James family.
> 
> {other fandoms mentioned in the fic: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Kommissar Rex, Stargate: Universe, Leverage}


End file.
